


you want the truth?

by JustAnotherWriterChica



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fort Rozz, Nightmares, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-30 22:02:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6443392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAnotherWriterChica/pseuds/JustAnotherWriterChica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After General Lane has left, Alex discovers that the Kryptonite has brought back some terrible nightmares for Astra.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you want the truth?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Supergirl fic so please be nice. I'm trying. I hope you guys like it and that i'll be able to update soon. Likes and reviews are always appreciated!

Alex couldn’t take it anymore. It had been hours and the only thing coming from that cell was deafening silence. The Kryptonian locked inside only stared into space blankly, unmoving and eerily calm.

She didn’t know Astra well enough to attribute it to anything. Does the woman only internalize pain? The kryptonite had to have been excruciatingly painful because she doesn’t have to think too hard to hear Astra’s agonized scream. Had she shut down? It would explain the fact that Alex hasn’t seen the alien blink in at least ten minutes. 

The most frequent question that came into her mind, the one Alex really dreaded to think about; had Astra grown accustomed to this type of treatment? 

Out of all the Fort Rozz prisoners Alex has caught in her days with the DEO, none had described the same experience during confinement. Some recounted stories of being stuck in the Phantom Zone, completely alone as they stared out into the vast nothingness. Others had described painful torture and the excruciating tasks they had to perform just to stay alive. 

After mulling over all of that for a solid half hour, Alex decided she would just go down to the kryptonite laced cell and check on their ‘guest’. As she made her journey down to Astra’s personal fish tank Alex kept to herself and tried to stay out of reach of as many security cameras as possible.

It’s not that she wasn’t permitted to go see Astra, Alex had every right to come down here, she just didn’t want other agents (Hank mainly) to get any ideas. Astra wasn’t her family even though Kara was her sister, but the woman meant a great deal to Kara and in turn Alex had adopted some concern for her.

Oh, Kara. 

It had taken Alex an entire hour to talk the fitful girl down. She had gone on and on about how General Lane would pay for what he had done, that what was happening was cruel and unusual punishment, and a handful of rather violent threats had been made. When Alex finally stilled Kara, who had been hovering and occasionally her eyes began to glow red, there was a full on melt down.

Things had just been piling up for Kara over the last few months and this was her breaking point. While Kara was still floating Alex had reached up and grabbed her wrist loosely, trying to stop her from using her heat vision on the expensive lab material, and the poor girl just collapsed. Alex had done her best to console her sister, whispering anything she could think of that was comforting, making promises of revenge that she intended to follow through on, cradling Kara to her as they sat on the lab floor.

As she reached the door to Astra’s cell all she could hear was the screaming pleads from both kryptonian women for the unnecessary cruelty to stop. Taking a deep breath, Alex entered her security code and pushed the door open, trying to catch it before it collided with the wall. She didn’t and the resounding bang had Astra snapping out of her daze, eyeing Alex warily.

Alex ignored Astra for the moment, walking quickly to the cell’s control panel and lowering the amount of kryptonite coursing through the room. Enough was enough. Hearing the stuttered breathing that came from the cell, Alex turned to find Astra bent over and rubbing her temples.

“General?” Alex was big on treating people with respect they deserved and even though Astra was the enemy, she could recognize the power the other brunette held.

A few more seconds and Astra sat up straight, a cold and reserved look in her eye. “Come back for round two agent Danvers?”

Alex faltered a little bit before regaining her confidence, “No. I am sorry for what happened to you and I would have liked to stop it but I was a bit busy with Supergirl.”

The mention of her niece seemed to take Astra down a notch. She nodded, her expression softening ever so slightly, “And how is my niece? That monster of a man did not touch Kara at all?”

Not knowing how to answer at first, Alex hesitated. Eventually she decided that if she ever wanted the truth about anything from Astra then she would have to be the one to take the first step. “Kara was devastated, absolutely inconsolable for at least an hour  
and she’s still really shaken up. She made quite a few threats actually and I’m concerned for the General’s wellbeing.” Alex added with a smirk.

Astra let a small smile play on her lips before her mask went up again. “But he did not lay a hand on her, correct?”

“Not a single finger.” Alex watched as Astra seemed to deflate again, now that she knew her niece was safe she didn’t seem to care what happened next. It was absolutely mind boggling. After having seen this woman in battle it was hard to imagine that she was once the fun-loving, caring aunt that Kara had once told tales of.

Astra had hunched over again, not really caring if the agent saw her like this, she had been through a hell of a lot today. She couldn’t help be curious though, this human, this agent, was different than any others she had come across. Maybe it was her relationship to Kara? “You will make sure that he never does hurt my niece?”

“Of course.” ‘She is my little sister.’ almost managed to slip out as well but Alex caught herself at the last second. 

Astra looked up upon hearing the somewhat offended tone in the agent’s clipped response. She stood and walked to the glass wall that separated her and agent Danvers, looking the woman over with a raised eyebrow before questioning, “And what is your relationship with my niece? Best friends perhaps? I would say lover but I have seen Kara with other men.”

Alex couldn’t help the laugh that slipped through her lips, immediately attempting to contain herself by covering her mouth. “Uh no, nothing like that. We are best friends, and a bit more, but let’s just leave it at that for now.”

Astra nodded, not entirely satisfied but it was more than she was expecting. She inspected the agent again, the way she wiggled and clenched her fingers when there was nothing to occupy her hands, how her eyes flickered towards what she assumed to be cameras, the way she almost smiled every time Kara was mentioned. 

“Why are you still here Agent Danvers?”

Alex sighed, she honestly didn’t know herself. She gave it her best guess, “I am unbelievably close to Kara and when something rattles her that much it unnerves me too. General Lane was completely out of line today and he had no right to be in here, let alone torture you. I came down here because I wanted to apologize even though I know it might be worthless.”

Astra nodded in what Alex hoped was acceptance because she really was sorry for what happened. She wanted information from Astra, she wanted it bad, but that was no way to go about getting it. “I know that this may sound silly and paltry after everything that happened, but I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Astra looked taken back by the statement; she wasn’t okay, not by a million light years. What happened today only played a small part in that but it had opened the flood gates for all the memories she had done her best to block out. Except, that wasn’t the cause of her confusion.

No one ever asked if she was okay anymore, not even her husband. People asked her if she could get up again, if she was sure of what she was doing, if she could do more. Never if she was okay. 

So she smiled. It was small and it was just a front but it was all she could offer. “I will be alright agent, thank you for the concern.”

Alex knows a façade when she sees one and it’s obvious that Astra isn’t trying all that hard to be discreet about it. She leaves it alone though, it’s not her place to question the woman about that but she makes a mental note to get Kara to come down here.  
Standing a little straighter, Alex posed her last question. “Will you need anything tonight General?”

Astra smirked, this human was definitely different than the others and it made her all the more intrigued. “If you could just leave the Kryptonite how it is for tonight? I swear on the House of In-Ze that I will make no attempts to escape during that time.”  
Alex nodded, it was the least she could do after all that had happened. With that she turned and walked back out of the room, feeling the General’s eyes follow her out. 

 

It was four thirty in the morning when a cell alarm went off, waking Alex from her light doze with a start. She groaned loudly, stretching her limbs as she got up to check which cell it was. As she walked over Alex began spouting every curse word she knew, this was the fourth night in a row she had stayed this late without meaning to. 

Alex approached the monitors lazily, shaking her head to be rid of the sleepy buzz still running through her mind. When she looked up and saw which cell it was all remnants of sleep left her body as she sprinted out of the control room. 

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” It was Astra’s cell and the camera had somehow managed to stop working. “Of course she escaped on my watch. And I was the one to lower the kryptonite. Just perfect.” Alex chastised herself as she leapt down the steps that led to the Kryptonian’s cell. Navigating the extensive hallways with ease, Alex arrived relatively quickly, failing to slow down as she got there with more speed than expected.

Unable to stop herself, Alex slammed into the wall next to Astra’s door shoulder first, grumbling as she picked herself up. She punched in the passcode as quickly as she could, shouting curses as she entered, expecting the woman to be gone already only to be startled to find the alien still sitting in her cell.

Alex stood inside the doorway for a minute, completely unsure of what to do or if Astra was even aware she was there. The woman was leaning against the back of her cell, her hands clasped to her head over her ears, muttering something in Kryptonese as her sides heaved. 

With a glance around the room, Alex found the two cameras right where they were supposed to be except their lenses appeared to be shattered. She took a step forward to inspect the devices while trying to avoid making any noise. Since the Kryptonite levels had dropped Astra must have regained some of her super hearing because she stopped making noise altogether, shooting up into a standing position.

When Alex looked at the woman she could tell Astra was not here, not in this room or maybe even this world. Unfortunately, Alex knew this look all too well. Astra was stuck in a nightmare, something that often frightened Kara when she first arrived on Earth. Her parents had tried to deal with it initially but it just got worse until Alex figured out what had to happen. While her parents had used a direct approach, shaking Kara’s shoulder or whisper yelling for her to wake up, Alex had tried to shut down the nightmare while Kara was still in it.

Quickly punching in the code to open the door and raising the kryptonite (just in case), Alex stepped into the cell and tried to catch Astra’s gaze. Based on the vacant look in her eye, the woman was too far gone so Alex stood on her toes as she calmly began to speak. “Astra, this is Alex Danvers. Do you know where you are?”

“Fort Rozz.” Astra automatically answered, sounding unwavering and robotic in her response. 

“Astra you’re in the DEO on Earth. Does that sound familiar?” Alex took a step closer, eyeing Astra’s limp hands carefully. 

The alien’s brow furrowed before she shook her head, “Impossible. You are changing you’re tactics to make me talk. My sister would never send us to Earth.”

Alex smirked for a second, of course Astra was still stubborn in her nightmares. Kara usually gave in after the first reminder that she was on Earth; only on the hardest nights did Alex actually have to walk Kara out of her worst fears. 

“What tactics Astra? I’m agent Danvers, Alex Danvers. You know me, remember?” In a way that was very Kara, Astra tilted her head slightly, tempted by Alex’s reminder before her mind pulled her back in.

“You have tried everything already, the labors have given me the scars to prove it, solitary confinement has almost broken me several times, and the games you play have given me terrors to last a lifetime. What more do you want?” Astra’s voice cracked with  
such emotion on her last words that it brought tears to Alex’s eyes.

She took another step forward, reaching out to touch Astra’s shoulder and grab one of her wrists. Alex knew that it was a terrible idea from personal experience, once Kara had sent her flying across the room and dislocated her shoulder, but she had to stop this. It was completely unfair and inhumane to let Astra continue to suffer just so she wouldn’t get a bruise or two.

Putting her hand on Astra’s shoulder only got her a fidget as a reaction but grabbing her wrist was the trick that broke the spell. With alien speed Astra spun on Alex, wrapping her free hand around Alex’s neck and slamming her into the glass wall with all the strength of a Kryptonian despite the raised kryptonite levels.

Alex gasped as the impact, the hand on her neck wasn’t cutting off her air supply but her head was spinning and she was seeing stars. “Astra let go. I didn’t come here to hurt you.”

Her words seemed to focus Astra and she locked eyes with Alex, immediately pulling her hand back as though she had been burned. Alex almost collapsed as her entire world continued to fly past her but Astra caught her, sitting her upright on the cell’s bench but leaving a hand on her shoulder to steady the younger woman.

When she could see straight and the little black dots stopped dancing in front of her, Alex looked up to Astra. “Are you okay?”

Astra looked at the agent as though she had a second head, “Am I okay? I am not the one who had their head slammed against a glass wall hard enough to leave a crack.”

Alex winced as she snuck a glance at the wall; sure enough there was a crack. Albeit a minute one but still, this cell was meant to be strong enough to hold a Kryptonian. “Yeah I’ll be fine, concussion at the worst probably. But seriously, are you okay?”

Astra nodded at Alex’s self-diagnosis, automatically overcome with a sense of guilt when Alex touched the back of her head and her fingers came back with blood on them. “You really should go see a doctor.”

“Stop avoiding my question.”

“I am not sure what you are talking about. I am being completely honest, I have no recollection of anything that transpired leading up to this.” Astra waved her hand at Alex’s head to emphasize her point. “Why? What did you see?”

“Well first of all, you shattered two cameras without leaving your cell which set off an alarm, which is why I’m here. Secondly, you were trapped in your own nightmare and I attempted to talk you out of it but that obviously did not work.” Alex motioned towards the cracked wall and Astra cringed.

It might have just been the possible concussion but Alex was pretty sure she was embarrassment flash across the alien’s face, then panic began to settle, before she became stoic yet again. “Astra you can talk about it if you want. You don’t have to be strong all the time.”

Alex wasn’t entirely sure where that had come from but she meant every word of it. She knew exactly what it was like to have scars, visible or not, and when she needed a rock Kara had been there for her. It was time for Alex to pay it forward. 

An array of emotions rippled across Astra’s face before she nodded, clenching her jaw and taking a seat next to Alex. Running her palms over her thighs, Astra questioned, “What did I say while I was in this… nightmare?”

“I think you were talking to someone on Fort Rozz, some guards or maybe even prisoners. You mentioned them changing tactics again? How they had made you perform labors, put you in solitary confinement, and played mind games with you?” Alex did her best to summarize and interpret what she had heard.

Astra’s hands stopped moving. “Oh.”

“Take it slow,” Alex suggested, trying to remember what Kara had told her. “Maybe start with a different, happier memory before we talk about that.”

Her hands started moving again, fiddling with some nonexistent imperfection on her suit. Alex watched the Kryptonian as her eyes roved around the room, either thinking or avoiding conversation altogether when a smile graced her lips. “When Kara was little she used to spend weekends at my house and those weekends turned into entire weeks. One time I had her for a whole three weeks before Alura finally took her home.”

Astra met Alex’s gaze with a nostalgic look in her eyes. “We would spend hours talking about everything and nothing at the dining room table. Any question that Kara could think of, whether it was completely ridiculous or too serious for a little girl, had to have some sort of logical answer. She was like her mother that way.

“Kara loved the stars. If we were together at night she would make me take her to the roof or balcony and teach her everything I knew. Those are some of my best memories. Kara was my whole world.” Astra sighed as she reminisced. How she longed for those days, everything was so much simpler and Kara took her side no matter what. ‘Aunt Astra’ wasn’t a name she spat out but a hero she looked up to.

Alex smiled, that sounded exactly like Kara. “Well that explains her fascination with stars.”

Astra turned her attention to Alex. “What do you mean?”

Thinking back thirteen years, Alex responded, “The first month that Kara was with my family she would rarely speak. English wasn’t hard for her to pick up, I could tell from the amount of books she would read, but she was scared and uncomfortable. But there was one thing she did every night without fail, she would climb onto the rooftop and look at the stars for hours.

“One night my parents found out and the next day they told me to stop her from going up there. They were afraid she would get hurt or something. So that night when she got up to climb out the window I asked her what she was doing. I was scared of her honestly, she had so much uncontrollable power. But she stuck her hand and asked me if I wanted to see something amazing, so I said yes and she pulled me up with her. We spent hours up there. Kara pointed out all the constellations she could spot and I realized just how special she really was.” Alex’s lips screw up into a smile as she thought about that night; it had been one of the best of her life.

“So Kara is your sister?” Astra questioned. Alex nodded and the Kryptonian let out a sigh of relief. “I am glad she had someone like you to watch over her. We will have to talk about her childhood sometime.”

“Yes, absolutely.”

Astra grinned, an honest to God grin lit up her face and Alex felt her heart skip a beat. Before Alex could overthink it Astra cleared her throat, “I suppose this is the part where I talk about my nightmare.”

Alex reached over and grabbed Astra’s hand without thinking, giving her fingers a reassuring squeeze, “Only if you really want to.”

Loosely squeezing back, Astra began, “I was not on Fort Rozz long when it started, at least I do not think. Time was rather unusual on that floating deathtrap. By my best guess, I was there for two weeks when they began to systematically separate me from everyone I knew. Non was the first person I was moved away from, after that it was others who had joined my cause until I was in one of the outermost sectors of the prison.

“The inner sanctum was for lower level prisoners who could be trusted, or at least wouldn’t start riots, if they were all together. The criminals got increasingly worse as you went farther out and the last shred of respect I have for my sister hopes that she knew nothing of this.” Astra blew out a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling, her eyes beginning to twinkle with unshed tears.

Alex squeezed her hand again and this time Astra squeezed back harder, as if she needed something to ground her. “Not only did I have to deal with the other men and women out there with me, people who had destroyed entire planets, warlords, intergalactic rapists and serial killers, but I had to deal with abuse from the guards. Every other night they would come for me. One night for them to have their fun and one night for me to rest and heal.”

“Couldn’t you tell anyone? Was there anyone you could trust?” Alex didn’t like where this was going and Astra’s tone had a pit of dread settling in her stomach.

Astra let out a sharp bark of laughter, “I was often visited by the Chief Warden himself. No one would listen to me and on the off chance they did hear me out, I would be ridiculed and written off like I was losing my mind. Not very comforting when you are actually on the cusp of insanity.”

Alex wasn’t good at being comforting normally, she could never relate to other’s experiences, but this, this she could handle. This was a soldier’s pit of despair and Alex had climbed out too many times to not help someone else out. “I can’t say that I’ve been through the same thing but I have been through my own versions of Fort Rozz. I know it hurts to talk about but it also helps, lifts a weight off your chest if you have someone who understands, you know?”

She smiled at Astra, a shy tilt of the lips that was meant to express empathy and a sense of comfort. To Alex’s surprise, Astra let a tear slip out before she hastily wiped it away. She did manage to keep her hold Astra’s hand, though, and she pulled the older woman a little closer.

God, what are you doing Danvers? This is Kara’s aunt, not some stranger that you can become attached to. Then again, this IS Kara’s aunt. Maybe Kara will appreciate the fact that I’m not letting Astra suffer by herself. 

Astra started again, “The guards were Kryptonian for the most part, a couple other races were mingled in, but none scared me as much as the Kryptonians. They were a reminder of home, the life that I would never have again, a life with Kara and even Alura.”

“You said something about labors?” Alex turned her hand over on Astra’s leg, interlocking their fingers. Oddly enough, it felt right and it made her stomach do a flip, butterflies appearing with jackhammers inside of her.

“Almost impossible tasks for anyone,” Astra sighed. “The only reason I managed to do it was because their verbal lashings were worse. If I was not performing some physical task, fighting another inmate, often to the death, or retrieving something from someone’s cell on, they would just assault me for hours. Screaming of the different ways they would kill me, the kinds of torture they would inflict upon me. Nothing really got to me until they brought Kara into the equation.”

Astra almost growled as she spoke, a fire lighting in her eyes as she remembered her pain as she often did. “It was not hard for those monsters to speak of the kinds of punishment they would inflict upon such a young and innocent girl. Those were the nights where I screamed, begged, did anything to make them stop.”

Alex had to press her lips together tightly to refrain from saying anything, Astra needed to let all of it out. “I have scars smattered across my body from the endless beatings and trials. There is irreparable damage to my mind and body all because they had the power to do what they wanted with ‘General Astra’!”

The Kryptonian had begun to shake halfway through her rant and she was full-on trembling now but Alex couldn’t decide if it was from anguish or anger. Alex pulled the alien’s other hand into her grasp and it seemed to bring her back. Astra sounded utterly defeated as she whispered, “And just when I thought it was over, it got so much worse.”

Sitting up straight again, Astra turned her body towards Alex, “They left me alone for a couple of days. Of course I was still at the mercy of the other prisoners but there was only one incident.” Alex wasn’t going to press for details anyways but Astra added, “Let’s save that story for another day.”

“What else could they have possibly done to you?” Alex knew that when it came to Fort Rozz things could get much worse but she couldn’t stop herself from asking. 

“They put me in solitary confinement. I do not know what they expected from it. I actually found the break to be rather soothing but after sometime, just staring out into the abyss of the Phantom Zone became,” Astra paused as she searched for the right word, “unnerving, jarring, mind numbing.”

“I almost lost any trace of sanity in that cell but it’s not like I had not been that close to the edge before. Looking back, solitude was a vacation in that hell hole.” Astra dipped her head as she mumbled, “What came next was worse. Far worse.”

Alex didn’t know if it was just the after effects of the Kryptonite or her ordeal (probably both) but Astra had lost most of her color and her skin had a sickly green tint to it. “Astra maybe we should stop.”

“I cannot stop now. Please, just listen.” Alex’s could feel her heart cracking as Astra pleaded with her. 

“I’m listening. I swear.” Those four words seemed to steady Astra and she flexed her fingers before she picked up her recount. 

“Kryptonian technology had advanced to the point that we could enter virtual realities, allowing a controller to put their subjects into different situations and have the whole experience. This tech was strictly used by the military for drills and other types of training but Fort Rozz had somehow come into possession of this gear.

“The first time I entered they killed Non in front of me, just a hologram obviously but it didn’t spur the reaction they had been hoping for. I refused to cry, I have never really loved Non as we had an arranged marriage. That was just my warm up because the next time they put me in it I had to watch Alura die.”

Alex was confused, “I thought that you didn’t get along with Alura? Like, at all.”

Astra looked away for a moment, pondering how to explain her relationship with her sister to the other woman. “If you were me and Kara was her mother, would you lose faith in her? Even if she had done some of the worst things you could think of. Would you still love your sister?”

Alex looked appalled, thrown by the question, “Absolutely! She may be adopted and a pain in the ass sometimes but she is my sister, which means I love her unconditionally.”

Astra let out a relieved sigh, “I am glad to hear that. For me, that’s what it was like with Alura. I certainly act like I hate her and I do have a lot of ill will towards her but that doesn’t mean I stopped loving her. That probably does not make sense but it’s just how I feel so I guess it won’t.”

“It makes perfect sense.” Alex knew exactly where Astra was coming from because for the first year that Kara was on Earth, she had possessed the same feelings. To a lesser extent obviously. 

“For a few weeks they would mess with my mind like that. I would fall asleep haunted by the sound of Alura’s screaming as she died, a different way each time, shouting that it was all my fault.” Astra shook her head as if she could get rid of the sound.

“Then one night things changed. I wasn’t listening to my sister’s agonized screams or watching her writhe in pain, I was listening to Kara’s confused cries for help. The first few nights I tried to run to her, forgetting that it was all a ruse because it just sounded so authentic, I still don’t know how they recreated her voice so perfectly. After a few attempts to save her I gave up, realizing what they were doing to me. I would sit for hours just listening to Kara cry out for help, lost and alone somewhere I couldn’t reach.”

Astra sniffled as a few tears slipped down her cheeks, shutting her eyes at the painful memories. “That went on for so long that whenever I hear Kara, or just look at her, I feel that exact panic rising in my chest. That feeling of helplessness returning and I cannot do thing to stop it. Fort Rozz has damaged me beyond repair.”

Alex slowly pulled one of her hands out of Astra’s, bringing it up to the woman’s cheeks to wipe at the steady flow of tears. She moved closer to Astra and the older woman practically melted, turning into Alex as sobs racked her body, her fears taking over her mind. 

Wrapping an arm around Astra, Alex started to whisper reassurances to the Kryptonian as she ran a hand over the brunette curls. They stayed like that, Alex doing her best as Astra let out everything she had, for over five minutes. 

When Astra finally pulled back Alex found that she missed the woman’s close proximity. “I know that I can never make up for what happened to you but I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what you went through on Fort Rozz and I’m sorry that I couldn’t stop General Lane.”

Astra’s eyes shimmered with tears she refused to shed, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath, and her color returning as she smirked at Alex. “You are not like any other human that I have met Agent Danvers.”

Alex hoped that the blush on her cheeks wasn’t visible, but judging by Astra’s still present smirk that was not the case. “I think we know enough about each other to be on a first name basis. Just call me Alex.”

Astra grinned brightly and Alex could feel those damn butterflies back at work again. She was about to say something when Astra cocked her head towards the door, “Apparently I have kept you down here for quite some time. One of your agents has arrived for work and they are looking for you.”

Alex looked down at her watch, six o’clock on the dot; the only one who would be here at this time is J’onn. “I guess that’s my cue.” She rose quickly but the sudden movement had her world spinning again, luckily Astra had good reaction time. She caught Alex’s shoulder as the agent swayed on her feet, steadying her with a firm grip. 

“Until next time Alex?” Astra smiled as the name rolled off her tongue, very much liking the way it sounded in her mouth. 

Alex smirked at the alien, Astra was letting her walls down for her and she couldn’t help the swell of pride in her chest. “Until next time Astra.”

Neither of them moved even though they had said their goodbyes, Astra’s hand on Alex’s shoulder as they stared at each other. Alex could’ve sworn Astra was about to say something when a loud “DANVERS!” echoed down the hall.

“Duty calls.” Astra joked, pulling her hand away with a light squeeze, gesturing towards the door with her other. Alex held her gaze for a few more seconds before mumbling “yeah I guess so”, briskly walking out the door before J’onn could catch her in there.

As she half-jogged down the hall Alex stopped dead in her tracks when she came to a harrowing realization. Astra had just answered her question. The woman was used to that kind of disgusting treatment, being at the mercy of others who knew nothing of the word.


End file.
